Tips from Dr Buzz

Following on from many years of articles in Joiners magazine we present Dr BUZZ. Here is the forum for you ask the experts on sawdoctoring how to get the best from your woodwoork tooling.  Combining our many years of experience within the industry we have compiled some helpful tips for your benefit.  If you have questions or something you would like to add please email drbuzz@rands.co.nz.
Click on the questions below to reveal the answer.

• Why should I have my planer knives professionally sharpened?
  This is a common question and we often see knives that were ground incorrectly brought to us because they were not perfoming in the machine. When we sharpen planer knives they are precision ground simultaneously and height matched so that when the knives are seated in the head they cut in a concentric arc. This means that all the knives are cutting wood along the full length of the blade. This improves finish quality and the machine will operate smoother and quieter. Equally important is the angle of the grinding and the fact that all of the knives are honed to ensure the sharpest of edges before leaving our workshop.
• Are my clamp-in style profile heads safe?
  Probably not. There has been a push for change in recent times for all profile heads to have some sort of pinned safety system so that the steel profile knives cannot be ejected from the head during operation. One of the common causes of knife breakage is due to movement of the knives during the shaping process. All of our heads now use safety pinned or serrated safety locking systems to prevent this occuring. As well as this our knives are precision located centrally in the head. This provides two major benefits. The first being the ease of set up time so you no longer spend hours trying get both knives cutting concentrically to produce the correct profile. This is especially important when cutting interlocking profiles such as window sashes or raised panel doors. Secondly , because they are set with precision and cutting acurately the finish quality of the cut is dramatically improved, reducing or even totally eliminating any need for sanding.
• Whats the best way to store my sawblades?
  It is recommended that all sawblades are stored standing up on their edge in the original box and not lain flat on a shelf. Some people prefer to hang them on a hook but care should be taken not to damage the centre hole or arbor of the blade. The reason for taking care when you store your blades is that the body of the sawblade has tension across its surface and its this tension in the steel plate that keeps the sawblade straight and not cupped or dished. When a Blade is stored flat it will lose that tension over time and when you come to use it next it will not be running true and will tend to wobble or vibrate affecting the quality of your cut. If you have a good quality Leuco or Linbide sawblade we can retension the body of the saw in our workshop. Cheap poor quality blades however cannot be saved and usually end up in the rubbish bin.